12 December 2012

My Vocation Story



I'm re-posting my vocation story (2008) b/c I've been getting questions about it lately. . .and today is a great day for re-posting it.  Our Lady of Guadalupe is my vocational patroness!

I was born a poor white child. . .in rural Mississippi. Sorry, couldn't resist. Nonetheless, it's true.

Both sides of my family are Mississippi delta cotton farmers. Though no one farms now, both of my grandfathers planted cotton. My mother and all of her sisters "chopped cotton." My dad drove a tractor. All of them went to church. My mother's family went to the Baptist Church and my dad's family went to the Methodist Church.

My first memory of church goes back to the sixth grade when my mom and dad sent me and my little brother to Vacation Bible School. Mostly I remember being the only kid that week who had not "accepted Jesus into his heart as his personal Lord and savior." Come Friday, feeling the pressure, I walked the aisle, said the necessary things, and walked back to my pew complete with Jesus. It didn't take.

For the most part my family back then was not a church-going bunch. We went occasionally, but mostly we spent Sundays working in the gardens, the yards, doing necessary work around the house and farm. Sometime my sophomore year, mom and dad decided to start going to church again. They chose a United Methodist Church in the largest town near us. It was the local "bankers' and doctors'" church. Lots of old money. Lots of nice cars. Lots of snooty glances at the rubes from the woods. I hated it. We stopped going after about six months.

That next year I went to Mexico with my junior Spanish class. We cut and sold firewood from my family's property to pay for the trip. Our teacher, a Catholic woman, helped us with the hard labor and with our Spanish. Up until we got to the National Cathedral and the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the trip had been a bust for me. My roommates were jerks. I didn't have much money. And my Spanish was rotten. When we arrived at the plaza in front of the cathedral, one of a hundred tour buses packed full of tourists, I stood up and started to the front of the bus like a robot. One more stop, one more site, snap a pic, get back on the cool bus. Little did I know. . .

The second I stepped off the bus, even before my foot hit the pavement, I notices crowds of older women in black on their knees slowly making their way to the shrine. They were praying with these necklaces in their hands. I turned to my teacher and asked what was going on. While she formulated an answer I was horrified to see that these women had bloodied their knees crawling on the gravel and pavement. What kind of religion was this?! My teacher said something about devotion and praying for sons in the drug world and some other things about Mary. I didn't really hear it all.

When we got inside the cathedral, I was overwhelmed with a sense of familiarity and comfort. Just this energetic boost of being home and welcomed. There was a Mass going on. I pestered my teacher for details. She explained what she could. She showed me how to make the sign of cross using holy water. How to kneel. She told me the names of all the fantastical objects in the church--the crucifix, the statues of Mary and the saints, the fonts and confessionals and altars. I was overwhelmed. It was like someone was reminding me of things I had known all my life.

As I look back on that day what I know now is that God trapped me with the sacramental imagination. He was showing me His presence in all the things of this sacred place. I "recognized" them as holy, as set-aside, because without having the words to articulate the feeling, I felt holy as well, loved, wanted. With this feeling still rattling around inside, we walked over to the newly opened Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. I knew nothing about this. Nothing at all. The story, once I heard it, didn't impress me all that much. Sounded kinda far-fetched to me. The new basilica was ugly. Stark, angular, modern, cold. Nothing like the near primitive wonder of the cathedral. We saw the relic. Big deal. Move on.

With the vision of the bloody old ladies still in my head and the incense still in my nose. And maybe even a bead or two of holy water still clinging to my forehead, I got back on the bus and started in on my teacher. I pestered her some more about why she was Catholic and where I could get more information and could I come to Mass at her Church and did her Church have classes for people who wanted to be Catholics and on and on and on. . .she good-naturedly answered my questions.

We drove over the mountains to a village called Taxco. A silver mining town for tourists. Our hotel perched on the side of the mountain and my room had a balcony looking out over the valley. At midnight the local set off a stream of fireworks. I went to the balcony. It was very breezy and cold for a Mexican March night. Just standing there alone watching the fireworks I had this sudden sense that everything around me was rushing toward me, almost as if I were falling standing straight up. For just a few seconds I didn't hear anything. Going back to bed, I prayed--something I never did!--and simply asked God to tell me what to do.

I woke up the next morning convinced I should be a priest. After that I started having dreams.

I was vested in red and saying Mass in my high school auditorium.
I was teaching a class and a man called me out of the classroom to say Mass.
I was standing in a sacristy and couldn't find the right vestments.
I was in the middle of saying Mass and the sacramentary was all wrong, misprinted. . .

Eventually, I told my grandmother. She gave me a cigar box full of Catholic paraphernalia: a rosary, prayer cards, a small crucifix, and a "question and answer" catechism, which never left my side. I took it to school and embarrassed myself arguing with the Baptists. Even my teachers got in on the arguments! The stuff in that box became a tangible link for me to the Church.

When my parents found out that I wanted to be a priest, they were a little upset. They put up some resistance at first but eventually gave way. By this time I had gone off to college and joined the Episcopal Church. Why the Episcopal Church and not the Catholic? The E.C. in my college town was an old-fashioned brick building built in the 1830's. Stained glass. Brass fixtures. Beautiful hangings. The priests there wore their clerics. The music was thundering, beautifully sung. The services were "churchy." The Catholic Church in town was easily confused with a dentist office. Built in the late 70's, it was a box with those 7-11 glass doors and the whole "stripped bare" vibe. No statues. No tabernacle. No stained glass. No nothing that identified this building as a Catholic Church. The services were informal to the point of being just slightly more organized than a Baptist picnic. The music was folksy guitar, hand-clapping, tambourine banging. The priest wore ugly, ugly, ugly vestments. There was absolutely nothing solemn, nothing transcendent, nothing attractive about any of it. The choice to become Episcopalian was too easy.

I was baptized in the E.C. in 1982 and confirmed later that year. I immediately went to the rector and told him that I wanted to be an Episcopalian priest. I was 18. He told me to finish my undergrad studies, think about getting a masters, and come back when I was around 24 to discuss the whole thing again. 24?! That was middle-aged!! Anyway, I became very active in my parish. After a few years and well into grad school, I had a falling out with the rector. Being a good Protestant, I stopped going to church in protest. In the meantime, all sorts of ideologies, practices, philosophies, and personalities were drawing my attention.

Since the E.C. offered almost nothing in the way of solid teaching on moral deliberation or anything in the way of substantial intellectual formation, I fell prey to one dubious theology after another. Finally, in my last year of PhD studies, I was convinced that God did not exist. Despite this, I was convinced by a British prof teaching in my department that I should move to the U.K. and become a "red priest," that is, an Anglican priest who rejects theism but works in the church for "social justice" using Marxist/socialist categories as guides.

I decided to take a year out and teach English in China. That was a disaster. However, I came back to the States rededicated to my vocation to become an Episcopal priest. I started the formal discernment process in my diocese--a two year procedural grind that worked to discourage many people by its sheer complexity and futility. I served as the guinea pig postulant for my parish "discernment committee." The whole thing was a farce. At the time, I submitted to it out of a sense of wanting to collaborate and a sense that the Spirit would work through the committee to help me discern my vocation.

The details of the process would be book-length so I'll have to summarize: I spent two years meeting nearly weekly with nine lay people from the parish who asked the same questions over and over again. . .eventually they sent a positive recommendation to the vestry of the parish who then met with me to ask me the same questions over and over again. On the night of the vestry vote on whether or not to send my application to the bishop, every single member of the vestry looked me in the eye and told me that I had his/her support and vote. I went home confirmed in my vocation and ready to start seminary. At around 11.30pm, the rector called to tell me that the vestry had rejected my application. The reason: I had the stuff for making a good priest but just not yet mature enough. I was 28 at the time. The rector could not tell me why those voting against my application had lied to me earlier.

This rejection sent me into an anti-religious tailspin. It was during this time that I pursued my interests in the occult and became more and more enamored with Marxism. I spent two years finishing up doctoral coursework and preparing for comprehensive exams. After passing my orals, the prospectus defense, and suffering through several personal traumas, I left the academic world for a job in the psychiatric world. Once in place in my new home, I began to pursue the priesthood again. This time in another diocese with another parish. At the urging of my parish priest, a woman from Mississippi, I took on a Catholic spiritual director, a Paulist priest in a local parish. Over a year with him I found my Catholic vocation again.

On the national scene, the E.C. was committing suicide with one disastrous lurch away from the historic faith after another. Finally, in 1995, I had had enough and left the E.C. to become a Catholic. I joined the RCC as a liberal High Church Episcopalian, meaning I was formally a Catholic but my theology and church politics were modernist and my liturgical tastes were medieval. I still didn't care for the informal, hippie-dippie Catholic liturgy, but the friendliness and community that the RCC had compared very favorably the chill I felt in the cliquey country club world of the EC.

Once confirmed, I immediately started the process for joining the Paulists. I spent two years in discernment with these guys. On the advice of the vocations director, I quit my excellent job at the hospital and moved home to spend the summer before entering seminary with my parents. I got a job in a local psych hospital and basically spent my free time getting "caught up" on all things Catholic and Paulist. In June of 1998, I came home from work and my mom told me that the Fr. John, the Paulist vocations director, has called and wanted me to call him back. I did. He told me that the president of the Paulists had rejected my application for admission. Fr. John would not tell me why. He said, "They're afraid you will sue us." Apparently, Fr. John should not have encouraged me to quit my job before the final decision about my application was made!

I was devastated. My mom wanted me to drop the whole idea of priesthood. I agreed. I walked around the house that day, saying over and over again, "What am I going to do?" My mom kept crying and telling me to just forget the priesthood, get a job, get an apartment, and be happy doing that. In the meantime, I was injured at work and got a staph infection in the injured site (first lumbar disc). I spent the next seven months in agony--both physical and mental, trying to deal with doctors, hospitals, insurance people. It was during that period of pain, dependence, helplessness, and rebellion that I finally found my niche. Accidentally.

I was browsing an internet site that had an alphabetic listing of links to the websites of men's religious orders. Most of them I had never heard of. I spotted one that intrigued me "Discalced Carmelites." As I went to click on the link, I accidentally clicked on the link for "Dominicans." I was taken to the order's main webpage and it took me all of three minutes to find the US provinces and the southern province. I contacted the vocation director via email and the next day he called to chat with me for two hours. About a week later he came from New Orleans to my parents' house in Mississippi to interview me. We spent six hours together. He offered me an application at the end of the meeting.

What was special about this discernment? Over the years I've complicated the whole affair into something it isn't. For me, the simple truth is this: the Dominicans wanted me. The Episcopalians didn't want me. The Paulist rejected me. The Dominicans wanted me, and they promised to make use of my gifts. I was accepted into the 1999-2000 novitiate class. My acceptance was contingent on my finishing the PhD before July 1999. I wrote furiously from Feb to July, finishing a first draft by the time my plane left. I graduated with the PhD in May of 2000. I was simply professed in 2000; solemnly professed in 2003; ordained deacon in 2004 and priest in 2005.

Smooth sailing the whole way, you ask. Ohhhhh, no. The novitiate was very hard. My studium years were extremely difficult. I made the move from being an ideological Marixist with religious pretensions to being an orthodox Catholic. The move has not been applauded by all of my brothers and sisters in the Order. Sometimes, I get the impression that there is some "buyer's remorse" about accepting my application! However, I have found many brothers and sisters in the Order (from the whole theological spectrum) who share St Dominic's zeal for preaching the gospel and witnessing to the power of God's mercy.

Plans? The phrase "Dominican plans" is an oxymoron. Of course, we plan. But I've rarely seen these plans actually pan out. If I could simply chose my path I would continue teaching undergraduate philosophy, theology, and literature. I am developing a course that brings all three fields together. The University of Dallas is developing a creative writing program that I would probably be willing to hurt someone to join. The Angelicum has a Templeton Foundation grant for a project called "Science, Theology, and the Ontological Quest." The grant brings in scientists, philosophers, and theologians to teach and research on the intersections of science and faith. I'd love to be a part of this. I am also dedicated to adult lay formation at the level of teaching basic theological/philosophical methods. However, preaching, as always, remains primary and any and all of this stuff I've mentioned here is directed solely to the improvement of the preaching. Without that, there is no reason at all for me to be here.

Fr. Philip, OP

P.S. I almost completely forgot to mention what happened with my high school Spanish teacher, Mrs. Mary Eddy! I went home to visit my parents right after I got back from Oxford in 2004. I had been ordained a deacon at Blackfriars and was preparing to move to Houston, TX for my internship. I went to Mass at the local parish, which had moved to a newer building. I went in clerics to the 9am Mass. When I got there I asked around for Mrs. Eddy. It didn't take long before she came running up to me to say hello! She was very surprised to see me and more surprised to me in clerics. She told everyone that she was responsible for bringing me into the Church. Yup, I'd say she was. Goes to show you what just a little encouragement for a young man with a vocation can do. . .right?

P.P.S. Here's a pic of me at the train station in Nov 1990. As you can see, I'm going from Changsha to Shanghai.  
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11 December 2012

No, the world is not ending on Dec 21st

That someone in the Vatican had to waste three seconds to respond to this is slightly embarrassing to the Church.

Vatican: World not ending, despite Maya prediction 

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican's top astronomer has some assurances to offer: The world won't be ending in about two weeks, despite predictions to the contrary. 

The Rev. Jose Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory, wrote in Wednesday's Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that "it's not even worth discussing" doomsday scenarios based on the Mayan calendar that are flooding the Internet ahead of the purported Dec. 21 apocalypse.

Yes, Funes wrote, the universe is expanding and if some models are correct, will at one point "break away" — but not for billions of years. But he said Christians profoundly believe that "death can never have the last word." The Mayan Long Count calendar begins in 3,114 B.C., marking time in roughly 394-year periods known as Baktuns. The Mayans wrote that the significant 13th Baktun ends Dec. 21.

Just b/c the Mayan astrologers came to the end of their calendar doesn't mean that the world is ending. Calendars run out of dates every year around Dec. 31st. Has the world ended yet? 
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Coffee Cup Browsing

Abortion, contraception, sterilization! All for the Greater Glory of God! AMDG!

How many times do we have to endure the End of the World?

"Is comparing Obama’s policies to dinosaurs racist?" Depends. . .does doing so help the Narrative?

The Road to Serfdom illustrated.


Speaking of serfdom: ". . .social studies. . .seeks to adjust [the child’s individual potential] to the mediocrity of the social pack.

New Atheism fail: To promote critical thinking one must actually think critically.

"Casual worship" fail: why get out of bed on Sunday to attend services at a spiritual Starbucks?
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10 December 2012

However difficult: go to confession!

2nd Week of Advent (M)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

The Lord and His creation is very busy: exulting, blooming, rejoicing, singing, strengthening, firming, seeing, vindicating, recompensing, opening, clearing, leaping, bursting, walking, meeting, fleeing. Isaiah prophesies the deliverance of Israel from captivity and exile. Not only will God's people be set free from their long alienation and returned home, the land itself will be rejuvenated, released from its droughted sterility and made again into a sign of divine promise. The fertile abundance of the promised land is God's promise of abundant fertility for His people. But being set free from slavery and exile—though welcomed—can be frightening. Restoring a lost nation and reviving the proper worship of God is daunting, scary. So, Isaiah prophesies, “Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes with vindication; With divine recompense he comes to save you.” If the Church hopes to see her restoration, her revival, we will follow the example of the paralyzed man's friends and find a way—however difficult—to bring ourselves to the healing touch of Christ. 

We started this Advent season two weeks ago on a rather dramatic note: John's visions of the apocalypse and Christ's own warnings of his second coming. Just yesterday—the 2nd Sunday of Advent—we heard read Isaiah's prophecy of John the Baptist's mission to preach repentance and baptize for the forgiveness of sins. This week we will hear Christ tell his disciples that he came to save the one sheep that gets lost. We'll hear Mary cry out her YES to the Father's invitation to become the mother of His Word. We'll hear Christ extol John the Baptist's prophetic ministry, and we'll hear him tell us that the worth of wisdom is to be found in her works. This week of Advent we will be shown again and again the need for turning ourselves toward the Lord and his Word; the need for receiving his mercy and love; the need for producing the fruits of righteousness in the world so that the world might see His glory and turn to Him as well. If you hope to see your faith vindicated, energized, you will follow the example of the paralyzed man's friends and find a way—however difficult—to bring yourself to the healing touch of Christ. You will find a way to make use of God's forgiveness and receive His mercy in the sacrament that reconciles us all to Him. 

The man's friends are determined to get him to Jesus. The crowd is huge, thick. They can't get his stretcher through, so they climb the building and lower their paralyzed friend through the ceiling and rest him right in front of Christ. Jesus recognizes their faith and says to the man, “As for you, your sins are forgiven.” When the Pharisees object to this, Jesus, asks, “Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk?'” To punch his point home, Jesus says to the man, “. . .rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.” And he does. If God can restore a fallen nation; return its people to their land; and revive the fertility of that land; and if he can heal a man's paralysis by forgiving his sins, then restoring you to the abundance of His gifts is easy work. But it is a work He will not do without your help. Our sins are forgiven. Always have been. What we must do—however difficult—is confess those sins and receive the forgiveness we have been given. Then, like the restored promised land, we too can go exulting, blooming, rejoicing, singing, opening, clearing, leaping, bursting, walking, meeting, and giving Him thanks for His great mercy. 
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09 December 2012

All flesh shall see the salvaton of God!

2nd Sunday of Advent
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

The Word of God speaks to John—as it had spoken to Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah—calling him out of his desert exile to preach the advent of Jerusalem's salvation, the imminent arrival of the Messiah. John, both a prophet and a herald, travels the whole region of the Jordan, “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” Our gospel writer, Luke, quotes the prophet Isaiah, “A voice of one crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.'” This is the charge given to John: ready the nation, prepare God's people; straighten their minds; soothe their defeats; temper their victories; and smooth the rough roads of their stony hearts to receive the consummation of all prophecy by baptizing with water all those who repent of their disobedience, so that their sins may be forgiven. Are you ready? Is your heart and mind straightened and smoothed? Have you prepared yourself for the coming of the Christ? 

You all know that Advent is meant to prepare us for the coming of the Christ Child. This is that time of the liturgical year when we read and hear all about the preaching ministry of John the Baptist. What you might not know is why Luke quotes Isaiah's ancient prophecy and connects it with John's contemporary ministry of baptism? In other words, why—in the middle of telling us about the start of John's mission—does Luke bring in Isaiah's description of the Jews' return from their Babylonian exile? The two events don't seem to have much in common. Historically speaking, they don't; however, prophetically speaking, the two are directly connected. In the 15 yrs. btw 597-582 BC, some 18,000 Jews were deported from Jerusalem to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. In 538 BC, the Persian king, Cyrus the Great, defeated Babylon and gave the Jews permission to return to their homeland, the kingdom of Judea. Isaiah's prophecy, quoted by Luke, is part of a much larger prophecy called the Book of Consolation (Isa 40-55). This is Isaiah's description of his people's homecoming procession, their triumphant parade back to the land promised to them by God. Who leads this procession? God Himself. So, He makes the path home straight, smooth; filling the valleys and leveling the hills. After 60 yrs of hardship in exile, the Lord brings His people home in style! John's mission is to bring God's people to Christ, to make our way to salvation a smooth, non-stop flight to the heavenly Jerusalem. 

Earlier, I asked you if you were ready for the coming of the Christ. Are you prepared to receive him? Writing to the Philippians, Paul prays, “. . .that your love may increase ever more and more in knowledge and every kind of perception, to discern what is of value, so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness.” Paul is praying that the Christians in Philippi will continue to grow in that kind of love that brings them closer and closer to knowing intimately God's will for them, so that they will be able to distinguish good from evil, and remain wholly innocent until Christ's return. How do the Philippians remain in God's will until the Last Day? They work to produce “the fruits of righteousness,” that is, they bring about, make manifest words and deeds that demonstrate their right relationship with God. It's not enough for them to think good thoughts about Jesus. They are exhorted to produce outwardly, publicly evidence of their spiritual excellence by imitating Christ in the world. And these superior words and works will be spoken and done “for the glory and praise of God” and for no other reason. Paul writes, “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it. . .” 

God has begun a good work in you, in all of us, and He intends to complete it. But His good work in each one of us cannot be completed unless we do our share of the heavy-lifting. He will not save us without our help. Over and over again, His people, Israel and Judea, committed adultery with the neighboring gods, sacrificing their righteousness on the foreign altars of oppression and injustice. By falling to their knees before idols, they fell in their holy duties to protect the innocent, the widowed, the orphaned, and the stranger. By worshiping things of their own making, they degraded themselves as things and sought to lift themselves up by pushing down those already pushed out by poverty, disease, and ignorance. Our Lord began a good work in His covenant with Abraham, but Abraham's children failed again and again to take up that good work and work with God's grace to make themselves into a blessed nation. For these failures, God allowed them to be defeated, exiled, and lost among the pagans. Some few remained faithful, and these He brought home. Because they worked with the good work He started in them, these few He returned to their promised land. 

God has begun a good work in you, in all of us, and He intends to complete it. So, how can we use this Advent to prepare for His good work to be completed? First, what good work He has started? For the whole Church, this good work is the work of being Christ in flesh and bone for the world. In other words, the Body of Christ must be the BODY of Christ—the hands, feet, eyes, ears of the Lord, speaking the Word, doing his will among the peoples and nations. For each one of us, this good work is defined by our individual gifts used in the service of the Body. What gifts has God given you? Has He given you a talent? Use it for the gospel. Has He given you time? Spend it on the gospel. Has He given you treasure? Invest it in the gospel. Next, we need to discern what it is that stands in the way of our good work. For Israel and Judea, it was their adultery with neighboring gods. They learned that we all become what we love most. So, what do you love among the idols of our perverse consumerist culture? Violence, death, promiscuity, the financial bottom-line; self-gratification before selfless service; untamed passions; or, do you claim to be a god yourself? In your pride, do you long to become a god w/o God and worship your own ego and id? God will allow it. He will also allow the consequences of our idolatry. 

Are you ready? Are you helping John the Baptist in straightening out your heart and smoothing down your mind? Christ comes to complete in you the good work his Father started. Are you listening to his herald and answering his cry for repentance? Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, they all warned God's people that their disobedience, their spiritual adultery would lead them into the wilderness of exile and defeat. And so it did. God brought them back to their promised land after two generations of living among their enemies, after more than 60 yrs. of purification and penance. Christ's Body, the Church—you, me, all of us together—must be the voice crying out in the desert, calling the world to repentance, calling it away from the edge of self-destruction. But our call is hollow and weak if we ourselves teeter on that same edge. A prophet must prophesy to himself first, and so the Church must preach to herself first. The Advent of the Christ Child is our time to get right with God, to get ourselves realigned with His perfect will, to be filled again with the love that created and re-created us in Christ. Look forward to his birth at Christmas, but look inward as well, look inward toward his birth in you, and love that child like he is your own, then, “all flesh shall see the salvation of God!” 
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08 December 2012

Confused about the Immaculate Conception





I've been somewhat surprised this weekend by the reaction to my homily for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

Every response I've heard has been some form of "I've never heard that before, Father."  This is exceedingly disappointing and sad. 

Why haven't Catholics been taught this dogma?

Speculating here. . .

1). The dogma's definition is an exercise in papal infallibility. . .not the most popular of notions these last forty-odd years. Could the I.C. have been ignored b/c our Ecclesial Betters want to avoid discussing infallibility. . .especially since the dogma's definition was an exercise of papal infallibility before the charism was defined by VC1 in 1870?

2). Pius IX's infallible declaration also defines the I.C. in de fide terms, meaning that Catholics must accept the truth of the dogma as essential to the faith. This sort of language--common before VC2--is decidedly frowned up in the Best Catholic Circles.  So, maybe the I.C. has been ignored in order to avoid support for de fide type definitions.

3). I had a classmate in seminary--an OP sister--who proudly told me more than once that she didn't believe in the I.C. or the Assumption.  When I inquired about her reasons for rejecting these two dogmas, she couldn't give me a coherent answer.  Basically, it boiled down to some sort of feminist objection to putting Mary "on a pedestal" as a way of oppressing women in the Church.

4). Theological objections to the I.C. were common in the Middle Ages. Controversy broke out between Dominicans (contra) and Franciscans (pro). The modern definition addresses most the Dominican objections from the Middle Ages, so I doubt Aquinas would object to Pius IX's definition.  And even if he did object on theological grounds, he would submit to the magisterium of the Church.  

5). The definition of the I.C. contains one philosophically difficult proposition:  Mary was given the gift of sanctifying grace from the merits of her Son's sacrifice for all mankind. Mary was conceived before Jesus was crucified, so how did his sacrifice on the cross "save" his Mother?  The salvific effects of Christ's death and resurrection apply eternally, that is, "from all time."  Though Jesus was crucified on a specific day in history, the salvation he accomplished is eternal.  This isn't a simple idea to convey, so maybe that's part of the reason we've ignored the I.C.

Can you think of any others?
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07 December 2012

By singular grace and privilege: Immaculate!

NB. About a dozen people told me after Mass that this homily was the first time in their Catholic lives that they'd ever heard the Immaculate Conception explained from the pulpit. That's downright scandalous! 

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St Dominic Church, NOLA

I have heard the dogma of the Blessed Mother’s immaculate conception called everything from “unnecessary political propaganda” to “Mary’s crowning as the fourth Person of the Blessed Trinity.” Our Marian dogmas tend to get folks a little overexcited: Mary is a Catholic goddess. Catholics believe that Mary is equal to Christ as our Redeemer. Since Mary is the Mother of God, it is actually her flesh and blood we consume at the Mass. No doubt some of these errors are the products of overeager amateur theologians. Some are intentional misrepresentations made for scoring points against the Church. Others are half-heard, misheard, or re-heard rumors and poorly memorized fifth grade catechesis! So, let's set the record straight on the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception. 

We are here this evening to celebrate one of those oft-misheard, misunderstood Marian dogmas: the Immaculate Conception. On this day in 1854, Pope Pius IX issued an encyclical titled, Ineffabilis Deus (“Ineffable God”). In this letter our Holy Father writes: “We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.” Let’s look at what this statement says and then look at what it means. Here’s what we need to notice: 

1). The phrase “we declare, pronounce, and define that…” establishes Ineffabilis Deus as an infallible papal pronouncement. Not the first nor the last. Please note that papal infallibility wasn’t officially defined (i.e. “limited”) until 1870 at the First Vatican Council some sixteen years later. 

2). The Holy Father is pronouncing infallibly on an existing doctrine. In other words, Pope Pius IX did not “invent” the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Our modern solemnity developed rather circuitously over the centuries from the second century oriental feast of The Conception of St John the Baptist. This feast and the feast of The Conception of St. Anne, Mary’s mother, carried the tradition in the East until we find in the eleventh century liturgical books the Feast of the Conception of Virgin Mary. The first Feast of the Immaculate Conception was celebrated by Pope Sixtus IV in 1476. 

 3). Mary’s immaculate conception in her mother’s womb was achieved “by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God…” This was a unique gift to Mary, an individual dispensation made especially for her. 

4). Mary’s preservation from O.S. was made possible by “the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race…” Mary did not save herself nor preserve herself from original sin. Like the rest of humanity, our Mother, very much a human woman, was “saved” by Christ. 

5). Pius IX defines “immaculate” as “preserved free from all stain of original sin…” In other words, Mary was spared the effects of the Fall and was thus perfect in her humanity while living among us, remaining sinless her entire life, leading to her bodily assumption into heaven. 

6). As already noted, the doctrine of Mary’s immaculate conception has always been believed by the Church. Pius IX’s 1854 declaration simply elevates the doctrine to the rank of dogma, teaching us that Mary’s sinless state at the instant of her conception “is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.” Believing firmly and constantly in the truth of the Immaculate Conception is not optional for Roman Catholics; it is definitive of the faith, i.e. de fide

That’s what the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception teaches. What does it mean? Think about what Mary the virgin girl was asked to do by the angel Gabriel. She was asked to assent to conceiving, carrying, and giving birth to the Word of God, His only Son. Gabriel greets Mary with, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you!” Mary is scared nearly speechless by this and “ponders what sort of greeting this might be.” Gabriel, seeing her distress, says, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” Mary assents to the angel’s request to be the Mother of the Word among us, saying, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Not only does the I.C. explain how the Son of God becomes the Son of Man w/o the stain of Original Sin, the dogma also foreshadows for us the conception of the Church. 

Follow me here: 

Mary gives the Christ his flesh and bone. The Church is the Body of Christ on earth, making Mary our Mother. 

Mary gives birth to the Word made flesh. The Church in the flesh –that's all of us—preaches and teaches the Word to the world. 

Mary, the deathless Mother of the Church, is raised bodily to heaven. The Church, our deathless Mother, will be raised bodily on the Last Day. 

As members of the Body of Christ, we are given the dogma of the I.C. as more than a theological explanation, as more than an infallible definition of Catholic truth. The I.C. is for us a way of knowing our Father and the strength of His fidelity to His promises. Paul teaches us that God chose the Church, as he chose Mary “before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him.” Immaculate. Like Mary, “we were also chosen…so that we might exist for the praise of His glory…” Mary is the exemplary church, the ideal body of believers assenting to the will of God; conceiving, carrying, giving birth to the Word daily, hourly before the world, for the world. And for this purpose, Mary and the Church were themselves conceived, carried, and birthed without the stain, the burden of sin. This solemnity is a singular grace, a gifted moment where we glimpse not in passing but in perpetuity the overwhelming power of our Father to accomplish through Christ the promises He made to our ancestors long ago: a virgin will conceive a son and he will be called “Emmanuel,” God-with-us, Jesus the Christ! 

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Anniversaries

Today marks the 71st anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

And my first anniversary as parochial vicar of St Dominic, NOLA.
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06 December 2012

Consecration of the U.S. to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

ACT OF THANKSGIVING TO THE BLESSED TRINITY AND CONSECRATION TO MARY IMMACULATE,
PATRONESS OF THE UNITED STATES



Most Holy Trinity: Our Father in Heaven, Who chose Mary as the fairest of Your daughters; Holy Spirit, Who chose Mary as Your spouse; God the Son, Who chose Mary as Your Mother; in union with Mary, we adore Your majesty and acknowledge Your Supreme Eternal dominion and authority. 

Most Holy Trinity, we put the United States of America into the hands of Mary Immaculate in order that she may present the country to You. Through her we thank You for the great resources of this land and for the freedom which has been its heritage. Through the intercession of Mary, have mercy on the Catholic Church in America. Grant us peace. Have mercy on the President and on all officers of our government. Grant us a fruitful economy born of justice and charity. Protect the family life of the nation. Guard the innocence of our children. Grant the precious gift of many religious vocations. Through the intercession of our Mother, have mercy on the sick, the poor, and the tempted, sinners, on all who have need. 

Mary, Immaculate Virgin, Our Mother, Patroness of our land, we praise and honor you and give ourselves to you. Protect us from every harm. Pray for us, that acting always according to your will and the Will of your Divine Son, we may live and die pleasing to God.
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05 December 2012

Pride, idolatry, injustice

1st Week of Advent (W)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

If we were to draw a graph representing the history of our collective relationship with God, this graph would be a long undulating line with very high peaks and very low valleys. When we are right with God, things are good, very good. However, when we are on the outs with the Lord, we are really, really out. Few Old Testament prophets articulate this riotous relationship btw Creator and creature better than Isaiah. For example, we heard read this morning Isaiah's description of one of those historical moments where God's blessings are being poured out on His faithful people. Isaiah delivers what has become the Father's cardinal promise: “. . .the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples. . .” What will He provide? Rich food and choice wines to celebrate our restoration to righteousness. And more importantly: “. . .he will destroy the veil that veils all peoples. . .he will destroy death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces. . .” Not only does the Lord promise to care for the daily needs of His people, He promises to defeat Death and end forever the agony of our grieving. This promise is fulfilled in the advent of Christ Jesus, the food and drink of eternal life. 

If we were to think too long and too hard about the miseries of the human condition, we'd probably spend most of our days in tears, crying out to God for His justice against disease, hunger, and violence. Our supernaturally augmented ability to love one another makes it difficult for us to endure peaceably the savage injustices that nature inflicts on the least of God's children. Add to this misery the human talent to injure and kill, and we are sorely tempted to close our eyes and ears to the suffering that demands justice. The problems are so big, so deep, so vile that we are overwhelmed with their stench. What can we do to put an end to this madness? When we try, our efforts almost always seem small and useless. One reason for our apparent failure is that we often misdiagnosis the disease and apply the wrong remedies. Rather than treat the root cause of the problem, we choose to dabble in treating the presenting symptoms: poverty, social injustice, and ignorance. But what lies rotting at the heart of the disease is not a lack of wealth or racial inequality or inadequate education. The evil men do flows from the sin of pride, the hardening of his heart against God, and needful acts of loving-care and mercy we are commanded to perform.

When God's people in the Old Testament fell from grace, they fell for two reasons: 1) idolatry, a form of adultery committed by worshiping alien gods; and 2) injustice, the oppression of those most in need, a sin produced by idolatry. It should come as no surprise that when we commit adultery with alien gods, we also end up oppressing the least of God's children. What better way is there to express our willful independence from God than to offer praise and thanksgiving to our own creations? So, pride drives us to our knees before the idols of our own making. These gods never tell us anything we do not want to hear. They never demand anything from us that we do already want to give. In fact, they are nothing more than images of our own defective wills: the will to power, to succeed, to accumulate, to dominate, to control. It's just one tiny step from worshiping ourselves to oppressing the least among us. If I must worship me, then so must you. How then do we treat this disease? We come to believe that we are all creatures of a loving God who has commanded us to love one another in the same way that He loves us: sacrificially. He gave us His only Son in death so that death is no longer to be feared. Freed from this awful fear, and knowing that this world is always passing away, we can let go of our pride and receive the Lord's gift of bountiful mercy. This is how He cares for us: by making us like Him, like His Christ, and bringing us—if we will—to the perfection of His love. 
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03 December 2012

Lord, I am not worthy. . .

St. Francis Xavier
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Despite their voracious appetite for military conquest, the Romans of Jesus' day were known for their lenient policy toward the religious practices of their conquered peoples. Most of the time, subject nations and tribes would be required to incorporate the Emperor into their local pantheon of deities. For the polytheistic pagan cultures brought into the empire, this was not a deal-breaker. They tossed a pinch of incense on the imperial altar and got on with their lives. The Jews, however, were different. As the only truly monotheistic religion under Roman rule, God's people were exempted from the imperial cult. Thus, when the centurion requests Jesus' help with a sick servant, he is showing respect for the religious prohibition against Gentiles visiting Jewish homes, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed.” What do we mean when we repeat the centurion's words before receiving the Body and Blood of Christ in communion? Isn't all this business about being “unworthy” a bunch of junk leftover from the pre-Vatican Two Church? 

This very question was asked in one of the classes I took in seminary. A woman in the class objected rather vigorously to the phrase, “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you. . .,” arguing that requiring Catholics to repeat this at communion time fostered a “pre-Vatican Two mentality” regarding the human person and served to damage personal self-esteem. She proudly declared that she always changed the phrase to “Lord, I AM worthy to receive you. . .” Being something of a pot-stirrer, I asked, “If you are already worthy to receive communion, why bother receiving?” That earned me a damning glare from both the woman and our professor! I attempted to explain what I thought was the ancient understanding of human worthiness before God, but my explanation was drowned in a storm of indignant accusation of “patriarchal throwback” and “no pastoral sensitivity.” Since then, I've been a little more careful about distinguishing btw “being worthy” and “being made worthy.” Before the majesty of God and His Christ in the sacrament, no human person is worthy by nature; however, b/c of Christ and his sacrifice for us, we are made worthy to stand in the divine presence. To ask for healing while in His presence—imitating the centurion—is a confession of our place before Him: we are servants. 

If confessing our status as servants seems like another bit of “pre-Vatican Two” leftovers, let's remember that we follow Christ, the one who takes himself off the Master's pedestal and serves his students by washing their feet. The same Christ who exhorts his disciples to be servants to the least among his brothers and sisters, and then places first those who place themselves last. Confessing our lack of worthiness to receive Christ in communion and then receiving him in communion is the supreme act of trust for a Christian servant. The centurion confesses his own absolute trust in Christ's power when he says, “. . .only say the word and my servant will be healed.” No need to come to my house, Lord. No need to see or touch my servant. Just say the word. We echo his trust when we repeat his confession; when we repeat his confession, we too confess our trust that though unworthy we are made worthy. If such a confession of faith damages self-esteem, let me suggest that the truth of Christian humility is being deeply misunderstood. Nothing we can do will ever lift us up to worthiness. We are dust and wind. However, as a gift, we are dust and wind loved by Love Himself and made instruments of His mercy for His greater glory. Lord, only say the word and our souls are healed. Only say the word and we worthy to do your will. 
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02 December 2012

It's the End of the World!

1st Sunday of Advent
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

There are many and various ways to be awakened from a deep sleep. A honking alarm clock. A hungry baby. A ringing phone. A knock at the door. Theses are the usual ways. If you are interested in learning about the more unusual ways we can be awakened, search Youtube for “wake up pranks.” Pranksters use air horns; plastic spiders, snakes, and lizards; flour and syrup; mousetraps and marbles; fireworks, and even Halloween masks to scare the living daylights out of their family members and friends. Asleep and soundly dreaming away, the victims are secure in their beds. Vulnerable, innocent, easy prey. When the assault comes, their reactions—screams of terror, wild jumping about, colorful language—all come together perfectly in a flashing instant of terrifying surprise, a completely unexpected jolt back to the reality of the waking world. . .and the eye-watering laughter of their loved ones. After this dose of terror, how do they ever get back to sleep, waiting, as they surely are, for the next bucket of iced water, or the next fake machine gun blast? They know it's coming. Do they just wait to be surprised again? 

 Speaking to the disciples about his return at the end of this age, Jesus says, “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy. . .and that day catch you by surprise like a trap. For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth. Be vigilant at all times. . .” Like the victim of a Youtube wake-up prank, are we to live our lives in vigilant fear of being surprised by the trumpet blast, the roaring waves, the moon and stars shaken from the sky? After all, doesn't Jesus also tell the disciples that “people will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world”? Ours is a vigilance of hope not fear; of thankful anticipation not fret and worry about disaster and cosmic destruction. Yes, the Day is coming, but it is the Day our Lord fulfills His final promise to us. 

Pay attention: “The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill my promise…” Over the horizon, yet to arrive, are those days ahead of us when the Lord will make good on His promises to bring us back to Him; to rescue us from darkness and make us into children of the Light. He sent His prophets and His Law. We killed the former and violated the latter. And grew no holier for our trouble. And the Lord grew no more patient. He promised Abraham children as crowded as the stars, and He promised those children that He would never abandon them, never exile them, never punish them, never again start from scratch, hoping to replace them. Instead, He promised them a King and a Savior, a Lamb and a High Priest. He promised them a Son of Man and a Son of God, a single rescuer for all creation. One for us who is like us and who will make us like him, one with him, one like him, a single heart and mind, a single path, one goal, one road, two feet, and a promise from the mouth of God Himself: the days are coming when I will fulfill the promise I made. And this world will be ended. 

Of course, the world has been ending since it started. The Last Day of creation set with the First Day's sunrise. Can you count the number of world-ending scenarios you have lived through? For me: Soviet communism, DDT poisoning, acid rain, nuclear winter, HIV/AIDS, the new ice age, global suffocation from deforestation, flu pandemics, “dirty bomb terrorism,” worldwide economic collapse, and global warming—all secular apocalyptic scripts that narrate the reduction of our civilizations to utter ruin. Instinctively, it seems, we understand that as individuals and as a collective whole we will die. There will be an end. I will die. You will die. We might even die together. On a global scale, apocalyptic scenarios represent our individual anxieties about dying. Projected on the world-screen, these End of Days dramas are just one of the ways we humans play out our fear of dying. The trumpets of natural disaster, or nuclear annihilation, or environmental pollution blare from the four corners of the Earth, and we run around screaming, searching for some way—any way—to forestall our end. If the Church can be justly accused of using the bloody prophecies of Armageddon to frighten the vulnerable into submission to her influence, then we can just as rightly accuse the secular powers of using scientific prophecy to scare us into a slavery to fear. Does it matter if the prophets of global destruction are dressed in vestments or lab coats? Whether they use cryptic scriptures or equally cryptic “science”? Neither of these schools of prophecy preach the hope that Christ came give to us. Neither encourages us to wait faithfully in the expectation of the day of promise. Neither points us to the need to live in love with thanksgiving. 

Does the inevitability of The End mean then that we can become complacent in our vigilance for the coming of the Lord? No, of course not. But if we are not to drown in worry and be surprised on the day of promise, we must understand that ours is a vigilance for the coming of Christ not a vigilance against our inevitable demise. As Christians, we have no fear of death. Death is dead. Yes, we will die. But we will not lie dead forever. Jesus is not warning the disciples against the coming end so much as he is telling them to live now as if he had come again already. When secular apocalyptic scenarios splash across the media, we are told that there are solutions, ways of avoiding the coming disasters. We are harangued and shamed into accepting power-grabbing schemes to save the planet. Jesus says no such thing to the disciples. There are no solutions. He says simply, “I will return. And here is how you will know I am coming. . .” The advent of his coming is always upon us. He has come; his is coming; and he will come again. These are not reasons to fear an end, but reasons to hope for Christ's inevitable rule. 

Paul writes to the Thessolonians: “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all…” Here’s what’s scary about Advent: yes, the Lord is working to fulfill His promises, but the promise He made is the promise of change, of purification; He promises to love us regardless, and we are radically transformed by Love dwelling among us. The advent of transforming Love is frightening. We will not be the same. Ever. And if we will come to Christ as children ready to be transformed, we will strengthen our hearts against the seductions of the culture of death; the opinions of the herd; the temptations of material excess, and spiritual impoverishment. Movies, news media, celebrities; all our things, and empty spiritual junk food will seduce us, reel us in and leave us disheveled, broke, embarrassed, and dirty. Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy! Or the day of the Lord will surprise you like a trap. . .or an air horn, or a bucket of ice water in the middle of the night. 

Christian hope looks beyond anxiety, beyond disaster, beyond the always-already advent of an apocalypse. When we hope as we ought, we are not gambling against cosmic odds, but rather laying claim to the promise made by God to His prophet Jeremiah: “In those days, in that time, I will raise up for David a just shoot; he shall do what is right and just in the land.” That's not an angry threat but a divine guarantee. How then do we prepare for the coming of the Lord? Ask yourself as you begin and complete every daily task: how will starting and finishing this job get me closer to God? How does cooking dinner, reading, driving, paying the bills get me closer to God? Be vigilant against joylessness; stand guard against vanity and pride; beware deception, easy compromise, weakened trust, injustice; and beware court prophets and preachers prophesying and preaching what you want to hear. Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to endure until the coming of the Lord. And when he does: stand up and raise your head because your redemption is at hand!
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30 November 2012

Death. . .from whom no one can escape.

E.H. Funeral
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
Lake Lawn Funeral Home, NOLA

Writing in the 15th century, Thomas a Kempis 13th century, St Francis pens a verse that is at once unsettling and comforting: “Praised are you, my Lord, for our sister, bodily Death,/from whom no one living can escape.” It is unsettling to praise death. Perhaps even more unsettling to call our death and dying, “sister.” Why bring the end of living into the family? Why commend her on a job well-done? If death is our sister, an everyday presence in the family, then, like any good sister, she is reassuring, certain, constant. There's comfort in knowing that there is nothing special about death, about my death or yours. No one escapes; we all die. In fact, we are born to die. As animals of flesh and blood, we wear out, fall to disease and injury, and eventually our allotted time is up. And if we were nothing more than flesh and blood animals, we'd mourn for a while, consign the dead to the immortality of memory, and live until we too become a thought for others to call to mind. However, Paul reminds the Romans of a great Christian truth, “No one lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself.” In Christ, each life is extraordinary, every death sacrificial. 

We are here this morning to offer a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for the long life and Christian death of Ms E. We could say that we are here to mourn her, or to remember her, or to send her on her way back to God. But none of these express the whole truth about what we are here to do. Paul teaches the Romans that no one lives for oneself or dies for oneself. He writes, “For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord; so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.” Ms E. belonged to the Christ and offered her life in service to her family, following the excellent example of Our Blessed Mother. If we are here this morning to pray for the repose of her immortal soul, then we are also here to be reminded that no one who lives with Christ as she did ever truly dies. Christ is lord of the living and the dead, those still serving him here and those who live on with him forever. With the whole Church, the whole Body of Christ, we commend to the Father, through our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, the life and death of our sister, Ms E. H. May she now continue to live on in the hope of the resurrection and life everlasting. 

Teaching the crowds, Jesus says the most outrageous thing. He says, “. . .my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. . .Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.” The Jews are scandalized. The Greeks think he's insane. But we know that the sacrifice we offer this morning, for Ms E. and all our dead, brings us to the foot of the cross and to the entrance of the empty tomb, brings us to his death and to his resurrection. As we offer ourselves on the altar, each of us becomes “an eternal offering” made acceptable to God by Christ. How many times did Ms E. die on the altar in her 101 yrs? How many times did she rise again to flourish for the good of her family and friends? She did not live for herself, nor did she die for herself. For ninety plus years she lived and died for others, and now we give her over to the One to whom she belonged all along. Her life among her brothers and sisters in Christ was extraordinary. And her death a quick passing to see our Lord face-to-face. Along with our brightest hopes and deepest love, she remains with Christ, waiting for the day of resurrection, waiting for a new heaven and new earth. 
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29 November 2012

Thanks!

Another Big Dominican Mille Grazie to the anonymous Book Benefactor who sent me Sergius Bulgakov's Unfading Light.

This is the first English translation of this book by the great Russian Orthodox theologian and philosopher.

Fr. Philip, OP
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28 November 2012

Are you worthy of persecution?

34th Week OT (W)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

We can tell from this evening's reading that Jesus doesn't go out of his way to make Christianity a real attractive option. Can you imagine trying to get him elected to public office? Imagine having to go on FOXNews and explain away this campaign promise: “Vote for me and they will seize and persecute you. . .You will even be handed over by . . .relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. . .” Guess whose bumper sticker isn't going on my car! What's not entirely clear here is why we—as followers of Christ—will be persecuted. All Jesus says is that we'll be persecuted because of his name. St. John helps us out here a bit. He writes, “All the nations will come and worship before you, [Lord], for your righteous acts have been revealed.” When we live as followers of Christ, doing all that we have been commanded to do, we do all that we have been commanded to do in his name. For his sake. In other words, we work to reveal God's righteous deeds so that He gets the glory. For a world ruled by the Enemy, this sort of thing is bound to draw some negative attention. So, are you in any danger of being persecuted for revealing God's righteous acts to the world? 

We can narrow that question down a bit by focusing on just one of God's righteous acts: are you in any danger of persecuted for revealing God's righteous act of loving and forgiving His human children despite their obstinate rebelliousness and sin? You might think that our creation in love is the number one righteous act of God. But it is far more merciful to re-create than create, especially when your creatures fail so often in showing gratitude through humility. Our salvation through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross is God's most righteous act b/c it involves our Creator in more than just bringing together dust and breath to create us. Once made by God in His image and likeness, and fallen into disobedience through pride, we are rescued by the flesh and blood of His Son. We are freely offered the chance to be re-made in the image and likeness of the Christ and to rise higher than the angels as His adopted heirs. It is the righteous act of our re-creation as Children of God in Christ that we are most obligated to reveal to the world. And it is evidence of this infinitely merciful act that the rulers of this world will kill to keep from being brought into the public square. 

So, let's change up the question: do you live in a such a way that your life would be recognized as evidence that God's infinite mercy is freely available to anyone who longs to be re-made in the image and likeness of Christ? If so, then Jesus' warning of persecution in tonight's gospel is for you. If not, why bother with this difficult path? What drew you to Christ in the first place? Did someone reveal a righteous act of God to you and entice you to follow along? It can't be the promise of eternal life b/c that promise is kept for those who are unashamed of Christ. Maybe you were responding to that gnawing emptiness that living without purpose feeds. Or maybe you recognized in yourself the capacity to love sacrificially and now find yourself struggling along with the rest of us to take baby steps along the Way. How about this: the further away from God you got, the harder you ran, the tighter He held on and you just decided that all those mushy ideas like love, mercy, forgiveness, hope, faith are all stronger than your desire to sin and so here you are? That too is a righteous act of God. Leave here tonight and reveal this deed to the world: here you are b/c God's love for you is always stronger than the Enemy's hatred of Him and of His. 
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Fond memories. . .

My thanks to the anonymous Book Benefactor who sent Cassier's Essay on Man my way.

This book brings back fond memories of a class I took as an undergrad with the venerable Prof. Thomas Flynn (formerly S.J.).  I remember gnawing through the text like a crazed rabbit through an alien landscape. It was tough, chewy, and tasted funny.

Fr. Philip, OP 
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27 November 2012

Coffee Cup Browsing

A lesbian walks into a Muslim-owned barber shop in PC infested Canada. . .

Speaking of PC infestations: Muslim group to "mutilate and execute" a group of gay men. Any bets on whether or not we'll see a Hollywood/MSM protest?

Cutting adjunct hours to avoid paying for ObamaCare.

All the "smartest" people voted for B.O. . .um, then why are all the "smart" states in economic free-fall?


A theory about the nature and purpose of the Book of Revelation. . .basically, this is my view of this complex and beautiful book.

A brief history of tobacco use among popes, saints, and saints-in-waiting.  I'd heard while in Rome that BXVI used to be a heavy smoker.

SCOTUS breathes new life into religious liberty challenge against HHS mandate.
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26 November 2012

Making your sacrifice perfect

34th Week OT (M)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

We all know the lesson to be learned about stewardship from the story of the Widow's Mite: it's not the amount you give that matters but whether you are giving out of your surplus or your poverty. The wealthy give a larger amount than the widow, but they give out of their financial leftovers; in other words, they do not give their first fruits. Jesus praises the widow b/c she gives out of her poverty. Her two small coins amount to a much grander sacrifice than the rich folks' gold precisely b/c those two coins represent her entire livelihood, everything she has and everything she is. To the degree that the wealthy are set apart from the hardship of sacrifice, they are deprived of the opportunity to grow in holiness through sacrifice. To the degree that the poor are united to the poverty of their sacrifice—giving of themselves as well as their meager wealth—they are made holy. But this gospel story isn't about being rich or poor, generous or greedy. It's about how much of You do you sacrifice for the benefit of others. When you give, do you give your whole livelihood? Do you invest in your sacrificial act your whole person? 

I can hear you grumbling already! Geez, Father. . .I give what I can. Things are tight these days. What more do you want? First, all I want for you is to grow in holiness, pray for me and the other friars, and get you and yours to heaven. Second, remember: we aren't talking about dropping cash in the collection plate, or writing a weekly check to the parish. Your sacrifice can certainly include a monetary donation of some sort but that's hardly the lesson Jesus is teaching. Notice that while praising the widow's poverty, he draws our attention to her depth of her sacrifice, “she. . .has offered her whole livelihood." Not just her cash on-hand, not just her meager savings but her WHOLE livelihood, everything she has to live on. Why is this such a grand sacrifice? More than anything else, the poor widow is casting away her future; she's giving away tomorrow's supper, and throwing herself fearlessly on the abundant providential care of God. She's not holding back “just in case.” Nor is she “saving for a rainy day.” Her sacrifice is before all else an audacious declaration that she trusts in God's promises to multiple her sacrifice with blessings, to give her a harvest one hundredfold. Jesus notes her charity, but he does so by praising her faith, her faith in God's loving-care. 

Here's the question: in making a sacrifice to God—whether it's time, talent, or treasure—do you give from everything you have and everything you are? Do you give of yourself and what you have in a way that clearly indicates to God and everyone else that you know you are totally dependent on God for everything you have and everything you are? That's the underlying truth of this gospel story: the widow isn't giving anything that she herself wasn't first given by God. Those two coins were gifts from God. And she gives them back to Him, trusting that He will keep His promise to multiply them. In a strange way, both poverty and wealth are extreme ends of the same spiritual temptation: I will keep what little I have to care for myself (a lack of faith) AND I will only give a little out of my surplus wealth (lack of charity). Both are tempted to deny the power of God's promise to care for those who love Him. Both are tempted to hoard what they have—one a little and one a lot—against a dangerous and unpredictable future. A soul moved to make the perfect sacrifice knows that all he/she has was first a gift from God, a gift to be given in turn so that more gifts might be given. Our livelihood as followers of Christ is always, always first and last the love of God and His boundless mercy. 
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25 November 2012

Viva Christo Rey!


Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King!

The origins of this solemnity are rooted in the Cristero War (1926-28), a war fought btw the socialist federal government of Mexico and faithful Catholics who opposed the gov't's attempt to suppress religious liberty.

The anti-clerical laws were passed by President Plutarco Elias Calles, a life-long atheist, fervent Free Mason, and Marxist.  Under the pretense of expelling "foreign influences," Calles murdered bishops, priests, religious men and women, and destroyed hundreds of churches.  Lay Catholics were not exempted from the butchery. . .thousands were martyred as well. 

The Catholic rebels took as their battle cry, "Viva Christo Rey!" In 1926, Pope Pius XI issued the encyclical, Quas primas, instituting the Solemnity of Christ the King.

The 2012 film Cristiada (For Greater Glory) depicts the Cristero War.

Today would be the perfect day to watch this film with family and pray in defense of our religious liberty!

(On a more personal note:  today is significant for me b/c I attribute my priestly vocation to Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patroness of the Cristeros.)
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24 November 2012

Who sits on the throne of your heart?

NB.  The deacons are preaching this weekend.  Here's my Christ the King homily from 2006. . .written in a style very different from what I use these days. . .

Christ the King
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
Church of the Incarnation and St. Paul’s Hospital

Who or what sits on the throne of your heart? Who or what rules your mind, your body, your soul? Who are you as a subject of the Lord’s kingdom? Who are we together in his royal service?

The Solemnity of Christ the King celebrates the arrival and the coming of the Lord—his coming and going in disgrace in the beginning and his coming and staying in glory in the end. He has been given an everlasting dominion, eternal glory, and kingship in heaven and on earth. He is firstborn of the dead, ruler of the kings of earth, and he is the faithful witness to his Father’s accomplished promise: to us who love him, he has freed us from our sin by his blood, and made us into a kingdom, priests for his God and Father! He is prophet, priest, and king and we share in his prophetic ministry, his priestly duty, and his kingly rule. But we do not share these offices by right or reward; we share them by inheritance. In baptism we took on the mantle of the Anointed One and gave our lives to the work of giving the Living Word our hands and feet, our strong backs and big mouths, our determination and patience, and we gave all of our foreign allegiances to the sanctifying fire of Pentecost—no alien rulers, no sacrifices to false gods, no prayers to the elemental powers, no princes before The Prince, no king in our hearts but the King of kings, the Lord or lords.

His dominion must skate through your veins, flex your muscles, and draw your breath. His rule will accomplish in you the perfection of every gift, polishing every talent and treasure, and he will bring your will to bear on the need for renunciation and sacrifice, the need for surrender to the commands of love, the righteous orders of mercy and faith. The rule of Christ the King in your heart opens your ears: “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” That voice, his voice will not ask you, will not lead you to the worship of the idols of the market.

Who or what sits on the throne of your heart? Who or what rules your mind, your body, your soul? If you are not ruled from your heart by the Word Made Flesh, then you are ruled by some alien power, some foreign god. Let me name some them: there are spirits who would rule us—spirits of disobedience and arrogance; of narcissism and selfishness; of deceit and false witness; of judgment and self-righteousness; of confusion and syncreticism; of rage and violence. There are disordered passions that would rule us: lust posing as love; greed posing as desire; pride posing as self-esteem; envy posing as competition; gluttony posing as the entitlement; sloth posing as leisure; and anger posing as righteous indignation. There are fallen angels, counterfeit messengers, who would rule us with false information and corrupted wisdom: ancient seers, ascended masters, make-believe prophets, self-anointed messiahs, cults of personality, cults of scientism, cults of success w/no money down, churches of the Barbie Waistline and the Ken Pecs and Abs, and the demonic choirs of celebrities singing their own praises!

Who or what sits on the throne of your heart? Who or what rules your mind, your body, your soul?

Pilate asks Jesus, “Are you King of the Jews?” Jesus answers with a question, “Did you figure this out or did someone tell you?” Pilate says, “I’m not a Jew. Your own people gave me to you. What have you done?” Jesus responses to Pilate, but he doesn’t answer Pilate’s question. Instead he tells Pilate that he is a King, but not a king in this world or a king in the way the world thinks of kings. Jesus says, “My kingdom does not belong to this world[…]my kingdom is not here.” Frustrated, Pilate says, “So, you are a king then?!” Jesus simply says, “I was born and came into this world to testify to the truth.” And this is what he did from his debut at the Wedding at Cana up to and including this exchange with Pilate—Jesus has taught the truth of the faith, holding fast against expectation and convenience and popularity and betrayal and expediency; holding the truth of the Word so that that Word might be purely spread, pristinely heralded and heard.

There is no compromise here. No genteel dialogue btw individuals with competing but probably compatible interests. No exchange of heart-felt wishes and warm salutations. Jesus speaks the Word of Truth to Pilate. And says, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” What do those who belong to the truth hear? They hear: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the one who is and who was and who is to come, the almighty.” They hear a proclamation of Christ’s rule, a declaration of his reign and sovereignty. Son of Man and Son of God. Faithful witness. Firstborn of the dead. Ruler of the kings of the earth. No election. No voting. No audience participation. No American Idol final four. Lord of lords, King of kings. Mighty God. That’s all! And that’s everything!

Who or what sits on the throne of your heart? Who or what rules your mind, your body, your soul?

The implication of these questions is naked: answer them honestly and know immediately the state of your spiritual life. I don’t mean to say here that you will get some sense of whether or not you are fulfilled or happy or content. Or that you will come to feel better about yourself or less stressed out or better able to cope. Jesus promised his disciples and us—all of his preachers and apostles—persecution, trial, betrayal, and death. He never promised us contentment or self-esteem in this life. This doesn’t mean that we won’t be happy here and now or that we can’t find some measure of peace. All it means is that being stressed out or unhappy or anxious or doubtful is not evidence that you are a bad Christian. All of those nagging spirits and draining demons are, however, a pretty good sign that something or someone else sits on the throne of your heart; something or someone else rules you—body, mind, spirit, all of you. What you feel is dis-ease, instability, the uneasiness that we all feel when we invite a foreign ruler, some alien king into our lives.

But know that these spirits are temporary gods, paper doll deities folded together with Elmer’s and plastic glitter. They are houses of leaves, Styrofoam rocks and magic marker paint, a fleet of cardboard ships in icy water sinking. They are the Sons of Noise and the Daughters of Wisps, passing through, clouds and rank breezes; loud, dangerous, yes; but powerless before a true king.

Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to his voice. Everyone who belongs to goodness sees his work. Everyone who belongs to beauty touches his face. Everyone who belongs to the Father welcomes his rule in their hearts. Everyone who belongs to the Son gives thanks for his sacrifice. Everyone who belongs to the Spirit rejoices in his gifts. And everyone, everyone who belongs to the kingdom serves One Faith, One Baptism, One Lord!

Is he lord of your heart? If not, who sits the throne and rules your life? He is the Faithful witness, the Firstborn of the dead, King of kings, Jesus Christ!
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They can no longer die. . .

St Andrew Düng-Lac & Companions
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Our gospel reading this morning is not about marriage and re-marriage. Let's set all that aside and go to the meat of the Sadducees' question to Jesus: isn't the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead inconsistent the Mosaic Law? Jesus answers emphatically, no. All that stuff about a woman and her dead husband's brothers is just a way of setting up a more basic challenge. To better understand this challenge, we need to know a little bit about the Sadducees. They were a religious faction among the Jews closely allied with the temple priesthood, the political aristocracy, and the Roman occupiers. As traditionalists, they accepted only the first five books of the Hebrew scriptures as authoritative. In practice, they were the ancient equivalent of modern naturalists: rejecting supernaturalism, they denied the existence of the soul, of angels, and heaven/hell. Their challenge to Jesus is an attempt to use scripture to embarrass him and discredit their theological opponents. Our Lord's response to their challenge impresses them b/c he cites Moses to support the reality of the resurrection, saying, “[God] is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” 

In his response to the Sadducees, Jesus defends three fundamental Christian doctrines: 1) the immortality of the human soul; 2) the resurrection of the body; 3) and the perfection of those raised from the dead. Together these three doctrines mean that those raised will have no need for the sacraments in heaven. Jesus defends these teachings by reminding the Sadducees of Moses' encounter with God in the Burning Bush recorded in Deuteronomy. Upon hearing God's voice calling him from the bush, Moses tries to run. But the voice calls him again, saying, “I am the God of your father. . .the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Moses accepts this truth and calls the God of his father, “Lord.” So, if God is the God of the long-dead patriarchs and Moses' Lord, then, Jesus reasons, He—God—is the Lord of the living; therefore, the patriarchs and Moses must still be alive in some sense. Using the scriptures, Jesus is able to rebut the Sadducees' objections to the resurrection and show that they do not truly understand the scriptures they claim to revere as holy. Luke reports them saying, “Teacher, you have answered well." And he adds, “. . .they no longer dared to ask him anything.” 

Now that we have a better sense of the argument, let's consider the relevance of Jesus' answer for us here in the 21st century. Jesus concludes his response to the Sadducees by saying, “[God] is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” The God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Jesus is a living God for all that lives. Even after death, we are alive in the presence of the Living God. Jesus says, “[Those raised from the dead] can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God. . .” This announcement should have a singular effect on us: the dispelling of any fear of death we may have. What's to fear? We are not Sadducees who believe that death ends life. We are not modern naturalists who believe that humans are nothing more than really smart chimps. We call the God of the Patriarchs “Lord.” And as our Lord and God, He is the everlasting God of Life, this life we are living right now and the life we are hoping for after death. To fear death is to mistrust His promises of eternal life. Look to the martyrs. In the face of torture and death, they remained firm in calling Him Lord, and now they live forever in His presence. If we will be “like the angels” after death, we must work hard to live like angels before we die—striving for perfection with the help of His grace, and announcing His Good News to the four corners of the world. 
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23 November 2012

Coffee Bowl Browsing

Open season on the Church in Ireland and Down Under. . .just the beginning.


And in the E.U. among the Professional Nannies and Paper Pushers. . .


Gullible Media gets duped by propaganda pics. . .

Dissident priest booted from the Maryknolls. . .and laicized. Why does the phrase "bout time" come to mind?

What is Remnant Theology?  Pruning is necessary for flourishing.

Heh. Pretty much like everything else he's touched.

Private property rights saved the Pilgrims from starvation.
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22 November 2012

Giving Happy Thanks (Updated)

Happy Thanksgiving to all HancAquam readers!

For me today: Mass at 8.30am and then a day of reading, napping, and Glorious Solitude.

Since I can't be with my Family today and since my Religious Family celebrated Thanksgiving Tues night. . .I've decided that today will be a Desert Day for me.

God bless, Fr. Philip
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21 November 2012

A Parable for the Meantime

Presentation of the BVM
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

What is the Church to do with herself after Jesus is gone and before he returns? No one knows exactly how long he'll be gone, and it seems that his long-term plans for the Church are a bit murky. As he gets closer to Jerusalem, many begin to believe that he intends to establish his reign as a Davidic king upon arrival in the holy city. They expect him to declare his kingship, call for popular support, raise an army, and expel their foreign enemies. This is why he's hailed with cheers and palm branches when he finally enters Jerusalem. . .just one week before his execution in the city's garbage dump. Our Lord knows full well that most of those following him around do not understand his divine mission. They've failed again and again to grasp the purpose of his ministry and the consequences of following his teachings. So, he tells them a parable, a parable intended to accomplish two related tasks: 1) to clarify the nature of his inheritance as an heir to David's kingdom; and 2) to shape the nature and mission of his Church while he's gone, until his return. We might call this the Meantime Parable. What are we to do in the meantime? Invest the gold of the faith and grow our Lord's kingdom. 

The Meantime Parable is pretty straightforward; basically, Jesus is putting into parable terms what he wants his disciples to do while he is with the Father, what he wants them to accomplish before his return. Jesus gives his disciples the wisdom of his teachings (the gold coins) and instructs them to spread these teachings for the profit of souls. Some of their fellow Jews object to the Lord's future reign as king and try to undermine their efforts. Upon his return, the Lord calls his disciples and asks for an accounting of their ministry. The first two disciples have had great success and are rewarded with more responsibilities. The third disciple, however, did not invest the Lord's teachings b/c he felt that Jesus had not earned his kingship. He accuses Jesus of profiting from the hard work of generations of God-fearing believers. Our Lord calls this man “wicked servant.” Why? Because as a disciple he took God's gifts and then refused to live as a disciple. Our Lord takes back this man's gold and gives it to another disciple, saying, “. . .to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” At the Final Accounting, which disciple will you be? 

How are you tempted by the Enemy to be the Wicked Servant? Let's first remember why the Lord calls the unsuccessful disciple “wicked.” Note well: it's not b/c the man is a horrible, unrepentant sinner. He's “wicked” b/c he knows that living as a disciple means growing the wealth of the kingdom, investing all that he's been given by God. It's the only task the Lord gives his servants while he's gone. Despite knowing the Lord's will, the Wicked Servant hides his faith b/c he doubts its value in the marketplace. Are you tempted to hide your faith, to squander Christ's investment in you? The Enemy will whisper to you: All that faith stuff is just primitive superstition. It makes people uncomfortable. Sounds weird to modern ears. You're going to look like an idiot and people will think you're hateful. Wrap it up and keep it behind the walls of the chapel. Live like a normal person when folks are watching. Besides, everyone has their own equally valuable ideas about God so why is yours special? The Wicked Servant listens to the Enemy and all he has is given to another. Christ invested his life for ours. When he comes again to account for his investments, we will be given more or what we have will be taken away. What kind of servant are you? 
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19 November 2012

Do the works you did at first

33rd Week OT (M)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Something is wrong with the church in Ephesus. And many things are nearly perfect. John is given a message to deliver to the Ephesians. What's nearly perfect? “I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate the wicked. . .” And what's wrong? “Yet I hold this against you: you have lost the love you had at first.” The Church in Ephesus—probably the most important local church at the time, certainly the largest—was nurtured by Paul for three years and bequeathed to Timothy. When Paul arrived in Ephesus, he found a group of believers there who had been baptized by John the Baptist but had not yet received the Holy Spirit. So, he made Ephesus his headquarters while he evangelized the region. The Lord, recognizing a zealous faith among the Ephesians, instructs John to say to them, “. . . you have endurance and have suffered for my name, and you have not grown weary.” They are hard-workers, determined believers. But they've lost something vital. They've lost compassion. “Realize how far you have fallen,” the Lord warns, “Repent, and do the works you did at first.” 

Though you may be a parishioner in NOLA, are you also a member of the Church of Ephesus? Chances are we all know a Christian like the ones in Ephesus. Hard-worker for the Church, a real work horse when there are things that need to be done. A solid soul who brooks no-nonsense or monkey-business with the faith. Fearless in defending the Church; fierce when presented by lay or clerical corruption; able to sniff out a religious phoney in seconds and is not shy about saying so. This Christian's diligence, industry, and zealous determination make him/her a target for the less rigorous souls in the family and a real pain-in-the-rear for anyone outside the family who dares speaks against us. We can all see that he/she frequently suffers for the sake of Christ. But there may be a problem. The Lord sends this message: “You have lost the love you had at first.” Diligence in defending the orthodox faith; zeal in confronting sin; hard-work, rigorous moral standards. . .all of these are worthless unless they are done with the “love you had at first.” The love that first seduced you into repentance and keeps you enthralled to follow the Narrow Way. All of the virtues of the Ephesians are one step away from becoming damning vices. The wall btw saving virtue and damning vice is compassion. 

Twice the blind man cries out to Jesus for compassion, “Son of David, have pity on me!” Jesus calls to the man, “What would you have me do for you?” The man pleads, “Lord, please let me see.” Jesus not only heals his blindness, he also confirms the man's faith and his salvation, “Have sight; your faith has saved you.” To understand this miraculous event, we have to hear it on two levels simultaneously: the physical and the spiritual. The man's dead eyes are renewed so that they function as they ought. And his spiritual ignorance—his darkness in sin and death—is enlightened by his faith in Christ. This is his first encounter with God's loving-kindness, His compassion. If the newly healed man hopes to continue along the Narrow Way to eternal life, he will place this first encounter with the Christ at the center of his being, making it the source and summit of everything word and deed he says and does for the rest of his life. If he will avoid the fault of the Ephesians, he will make all his works until his last exactly like his first: love God, cry out for His compassion, and receive it with thanksgiving! 
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18 November 2012